Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 79670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
There was none of that because that isn’t who she is. She is private, and she is classy, something you don’t get in Hollywood. It’s like winning the Powerball and getting struck by lightning all in the same day. Even after everything that happened, she didn’t send me back my things shredded or burned. It came in a brown box labeled with my initials. “I saw some of the pictures you’ve taken in the past couple of months.”
Bruce comes back with his hands full of plates, followed by another server as he puts the plates down. The chef comes out from the back, drawing even more attention than I wanted, but luckily, everyone is so consumed with their own shit, no one really pays attention to us. Not that I care, but I know it will bother Gabriella, and the last thing I want to do while trying to win her back is piss her off even more.
“Thank you.” Gabriella smiles at them, and they eat it up.
“You are most welcome.” The chef nods at her, and I add him to the list of people on my throat-punch list. At this point, there will be no one on the safe list, not even myself.
“What do you want to try first?” Gabriella looks at all the food, and it’s a question that she would have asked me all those months ago. Every single Saturday, we would either go out to these small restaurants we found online or order in. Once, we ordered everything on the menu and did a taste testing.
“I’m going to start with the meatballs,” she says, grabbing her fork before putting one on her plate.
I grab my own as she takes a bite of hers, and then I take a bite of mine. “Not bad.”
“It’s really good,” she states, and for the rest of the meal, I don’t push anything or bring up anything. We talk about the food and rate it all, and even though there is still a huge elephant in the room, we just dance around the subject.
When she tosses her napkin on the side of her plate after she takes the final bite, I push back my chair, getting up and putting my own napkin down. “That was nice,” I say as we walk out of the restaurant toward the lobby. I want to slip my hand in hers, but instead, I let my hand graze hers.
The car is there as soon as we walk out, and the valet guy has the door open for her to get in. I tip him before walking to the driver’s side, where the door is open for me. I pull away from the hotel, looking over at Gabriella who just gazes out the window. The drive back to her house is quiet, and I wonder what she’s thinking. I want to ask so badly, but I’m afraid of what she’ll say. I’ve never been this on edge before in my life. I’ve never felt worse about myself either. I didn’t think she would let me off the hook, that is for sure, but I also didn’t know how much it would bother me either.
Her hand is on the door handle as soon as I pull up to her house. She looks over at me, and I turn in my seat. “Thank you for tonight,” I say gently, the soft light from the street coming into the dark car.
She takes a deep breath. “You’re welcome.” She takes one look at me before she opens her door. “Hopefully, now you can get going,” she mumbles, getting out and then ducks down. “Take care, Romeo,” she says before she closes the door, and I watch her walk into her house.
My stomach tightens and my fingers literally itch to touch her. I hate that she didn’t laugh as much as she should have. I hate I couldn’t lean over and kiss her tonight. I hate that once we got into the car, I couldn’t lean over and grab her hand in mine to bring it to my mouth. I hate, hate, hate this whole thing, but I know deep down inside that I have to earn her. I also know deep down inside that it will be so worth it.
NINE
GABRIELLA
I close the car door as soon as I grab my purse from the other seat, pressing the button on the handle to lock it. The side mirrors close into the doors as I make my way over to the side door. Pulling it open, the security guard stands there looking at me. “Hi, Jay,” I greet him as he nods at me. “How are you today?”
“I’m doing great, Miss Gabriella,” he replies to me, pressing the elevator button. “You are one of the last ones to get here.”
“Well, now it’s a party,” I joke with him and laugh as the silver elevator doors open, and I step in. “See you later.” I press the number three when the elevator doors start to close.